We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Project Vigilant and the government/corporate destruction of privacy

by Glenn Greenwald from Salon

A must-read report of the collusion of private organizations with government agencies to spy on you. It appears that after the Bush administration failed to get two surveillance programs passed by Congress, they (the ruling class) creatively managed to set up, or encouraged the setup, of private agencies to do the work for them. Read all about it, and weep for your country. Then get mad and start to think about how to take your liberties back.
[Project Vigilant] what they essentially are is some sort of vigilante group that collects vast amount of private data about the Internet activities of millions of citizens, processes that data into usable form, and then literally turns it over to the U.S. Government, claiming its motive is to help the Government detect Terrorists and other criminals.
If you still need more convincing that the US is becoming a police state, read another fine piece by Greenwald entitled,  ACLU, CCR seek to have Obama enjoined from killing Awlaki without due process